Communist Party of Austria

The Communist Party of Austria (KPO) is a communist political party in Austria that was founded on 2 November 1918. The party was founded by Ruth Fischer, Franz Koritschoner, and Lucien Laurat, and its initial members were the left wing of the labor movement. Just ten days after its foundation, the KPO took part in a failed coup d'etat against the Austrian government, but the coup was neither professionally organized nor supported by the Bolsheviks, and it was put down. The party held little power under the Austrian First Republic, as the Social Democratic Party of Austria (SPO) had emerged as the main party of the left-wing during federal elections, and the KPO was weakened by internal divisions. In 1933, the party was banned by the Austrofascist government of Engelbert Dollfuss, but it continued to operate underground alongside the SPO. On 12 February 1934, it took part in a failed last-ditch attempt to rebel against the fascist government with the goal of restoring democracy to Austria, but its Schutzbund armed wing was quelled during the Austrian Civil War. The party refused to condemn social democracy, unlike Joseph Stalin, and its tolerant stance led to the membership growing from 4,000 to 16,000 in the aftermath of its failed uprising against the government and the Heimwehr in February 1934. During World War II, the KPO allied with Christian socialists, Catholics, monarchists, and farmers in forming the Austrian Resistance against Nazi rule, and 4,000 communists were sent to concentration camps and 2,000 killed, including 13 KPO central committee members. The party sought to free their country from the Nazis as much as they wanted it to become communist, being motivated by both anti-fascism and patriotism. The KPO became an opposition party during the Cold War, and it organized the unsuccessful 1950 general strike in response to the OVP's unpopular austerity measures. After the economic recovery of Austria and the end of the Soviet occupation of Austria in 1955, the KPO lost its support, as it mostly came from disenchanted workers. By 2004, its membership had dropped to a mere 3,500 members, and it had not held representation in the National Council since 1959.